Oskar is the ultimate outsider. He’s been living on the Berlin streets since he was 13.

To perk himself up, he paints the misery of mankind and has become the enfant terrible of the Berlin art scene.

But one day during a not-so-routine eye test he tries on a pair of glasses which blow his bleak world view to bits and give him a glimpse of heaven.

Shortly after, to Oskar’s fury, he begins to see the beauty of the world around him, to feel a connection to others and, most frightening of all, to fall in love. Will it be an easy ride? Hell no.

Eighteen-year-old Oskar Dunkelblick is a bit of a loner. He lived on the streets from just thirteen years of age, that was until his paintings got noticed and were showcased in a gallery. Oskar is now looking for his next picture to paint, another masterpiece so heads to the small village of Keinefreude, Germany which has seen better years. The place is completely rundown, the people are all poor and sick, just what Oskar is looking for.

You see Oskar paints the real, harsh world, not fantasies and flowers. He enters the village looking for his next person to paint and heads back home after venturing around the few local shops with an idea of who he would like. However, on passing the local, now boarded-up, florist shop he’s sure he hears someone calling his name. The next day whilst heading past the florist he realises that it has changed and is now an optician’s shop.

Oskar heads inside and is talked into getting a free pair of glasses from the aged optician. Oskar is soon alarmed and shocked when the glasses make him see the world in a different light, everything is so bright and lovely and Oskar doesn’t like it. Especially as he starts to feel warm and fuzzy inside whilst wearing them.

I had very mixed feelings about this book. I like unusual books and this was certainly unusual. It has an air of being set in the past but it is actually set in today times in a curious little place in Germany.

I actually liked Oskar and his strange mannerisms and the way he looked at the world. Part of me did wonder if he was Autistic from the way he doesn’t like people touching him and that he says what he thinks without a filter, but he also finds it easy to have conversations with people and talk them into things, so I’m not convinced.

The book does jump back and forth in time and this I wasn’t a fan of. I prefer books to say in the one time zone, or at least give you some warning, unfortunately, this book just dives right into the past in the middle of the present.

Overall I did enjoy this weird, unusual tale. I liked the pace that the book had and that I couldn’t tell where the book was going next. I also liked the message behind the story (well, the message that I took from the book), about everyone sees the world differently and that sometimes you need a helping hand to see it in a different light. This I totally agree with. Had the book flowed a little better and not gone back and forth this would have been a five star read.

Reviewed by Stacey

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About the Author

Hattie Holden Edmonds has held down a variety of jobs ranging from junior assistant on Separates in Clements department store, to hat maker and music hack on a German pop magazine. She was the in-house writer at Comic Relief for three years, working on projects with amongst others, Richard Curtis, Sacha Baron Cohen and Armando Iannucci.

She also runs a part time and very rickety cinema from a fisherman’s shack in Whitstable, she loves a good swim, and dreams of being able to knock out a decent three course meal.

She writes a weekly Huffington Post blog on all things bookish. She lives in London, not far from Kensal Green cemetery.

The book flowed okay in the present but sometimes when it jumped it took a bit of effort. I think it would of worked so much better had their been a backstory at the beginning and then the rest in the present.